1. Technical Field
The present invention is generally related to systems for performing commercial activities over a general access computer network and, in particular, to a system and method of conveniently and efficiently displaying advertising and product selection to effectuate a purchase transaction over the Internet utilizing the World Wide Web.
2. Related Art
As the Internet is developed, it is creating substantial growth in the quantity and diversity of information and services that are readily accessible from the home or office. As the number of users of the Internet grows exponentially, the number of entities that use the Internet to market their products or services is also growing exponentially. As a part of attracting users to effectuate a transaction, a typical organization also provides the electronic equivalent of glossy brochures that define the company, its products, its philosophies and any other information that may help a user decide to purchase from that particular entity. Accordingly, the information that is made available through the Internet further encourages individuals to acquire the technology and skills to access the Internet.
A hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), and more recently extensible markup language (“XML”), serves as a foundation protocol for the World Wide Web and has been widely adopted and implemented in web browsers and web servers. Web browsers provide a convenient user application for receiving generally high quality text and graphical information in a scrollable display page format. Such web pages are related by embedded hypertext links that reference other web pages. Thus, selection of a hypertext link, either by direct reference or implied reference through an image map causes a hypertext jump to the selection referenced web page. More specifically, the selection of a hypertext link prompts a browser of a computer to electronically couple to a website whose address is specified by the hypertext link.
From the user's perspective, however, selection is generally made through a simple, single mouse click on a displayed portion of the text or graphics. This system of simply selecting contextual relations makes browsing successive web pages served from potentially quite diverse and distance web servers convenient and intuitive. This user friendliness accounts, in large part, to the rapid and wide acceptance of the World Wide Web as an information resource.
As suggested already, one common use of the World Wide Web is to facilitate commercial transactions for products and services. The very nature of the World Wide Web, however, de-emphasizes geography because a user may receive the search results of a “brick and mortar” store within the user's immediate vicinity just as conveniently as the products of a store that is across the country or even across the world. As used herein, a brick and mortar store is a store in the ordinary sense such as a department store, a grocery store, a boutique, etc. In general, search results for a particular product, by way of example, are listed in an order specified by the server performing the search and are for “click and mortar” stores whose geographic location is transparent to the user. While a brick and mortar store can sell products over the World Wide Web as a click and mortar store, its specific locations become, nonetheless, transparent under common search engine display algorithms.
Typically, search results for a particular term or product name not only include hypertext links to locations that sell the particular product, but also hypertext links to publications, e-mail messages, web sites and other resources that include the particular search term. Thus, it is not uncommon for a particular search to yield hundreds or even thousands of search results containing a specified search term. To the user that must browse the search results to attempt to find an organization that actually has the product or service for sale that the user wants can be a time consuming task.
Worse yet, if the user prefers to patronize a service or goods provider within a local area, then, potentially, the user must review all of the search results to find those search results that meet his or her specific requirements. Even if a user has no particular loyalty to local vendors, the user may prefer to view, sample or try the particular product prior to deciding to purchase it. Even if the user plans to visit a local vendor, however, the user may still perform an Internet search to determine a reasonable price for the product and even to shop around for the best price provided by local vendors.
What is needed, therefore, is a system that facilitates the display and ordering (sequencing) of search results in a way that adds convenience to the individual performing the search. More specifically, a need exists for a system that enables the individual to determine what local establishments provide the desired goods or services. In general, it has been recognized by the inventors herein, that the World Wide Web and the methods of use therefor do not enable or facilitate the ability of local “brick and mortar” vendors to provide their goods or services to the local population. Accordingly, a need exists for such vendors to compete effectively for the local market with national and international service and goods providers. Stated differently, as the servers of the Internet become significant marketing pipelines, there exists an ever increasing need for local vendors to compete with national vendors in the particular markets.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,915 to Steven T. Kirsch discloses a secure, convenient and efficient system and method of performing trans-Internet purchase transactions. Kirsch particularly discloses a method of using “cookies” to facilitate security and to enable one website to facilitate sales transactions for multiple vendors in only one connection or search. Kirsch does not facilitate using the Internet as a source for finding the best prices and closest locations. Kirsch does not facilitate a sale transaction between a user and a local and proximate vendor.